A Shattered Reality
by Alexandria Keating
Summary: He had offered her everything, even her dreams... She had rejected everything, even her dreams...(A one-shot, but it might, eventually, become a story.)


**A/N: Because I'm too lazy to do anything else and this one scene has always nagged at me. Besides, who would (or even _could _for that matter) do homework when Jareth keeps flitting through your mind?**

**Tell me what you think of this brief little scene. Please?**

**Disclaimer: I don't own "Labyrinth"**

* * *

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave," his yearning voice pleaded once more, stretching out to her, too proud to admit to it, but begging her acceptance.

The shattered room was silent. The only perceivable sound was the sound of two fluttering heartbeats: matched perfectly, intimately in sync, their flapping rapidly increasing in intensity, in desperation. Now was the time. This moment so crucial to what would be the rest of their lives.

* * *

He waited with bated breath, too scared to hope but too afraid to see any other life. His eyes bored into her figure, looking into her, trying to see why her answer was so delayed in coming, attempting to stick to his passion.

* * *

She scrambled to get her thoughts together, too scared to hope but too afraid to see any other way. Her eyes became distant, pointed towards the ground, imagining the text in front of her, trying to see the forgotten line, attempting to stick to her reason.

* * *

He needed her. Why couldn't she see it? Had he not made it obvious?

* * *

She needed him. Why couldn't he see it? Had she not made it obvious?

* * *

His queen, his love.

* * *

Her brother, her love.

* * *

He needed her.

* * *

She needed him.

* * *

A mumble began to fill the quiet room, indiscernible at first but growing in surety and desperation with each repetition.

"My kingdom as great...My kingdom as great..."

* * *

_Not those words! _

* * *

_Yes those words!_

* * *

_Stop!_

* * *

_Continue!_

Her breath hitched in her throat.

* * *

His breath held firmly in his lungs.

* * *

Forceful fear began to arise. She couldn't remember. She still couldn't remember.

* * *

Tentative triumph began to arise. She couldn't remember. She wasn't suppose to remember.

* * *

It was there. So close-

* * *

He saw it there. So close-

* * *

Dawning. Realization.

* * *

Destruction. Realization.

* * *

"You have no power over me," her firm words echoed across the broken room, the empty plane of existence.

Shattered. It was all in shatters. The clanging of the clock echoed the break that fractured everything.

* * *

His heart, his being, her dreams, never to be remade. Regret filled his body as he gave her one last pleading look before he reluctantly destroyed her dreams, leaving them forever barred.

* * *

Her eyes widen as she saw what she had done. Her heart, his being, her dreams. Regret filled her body as she watched him, once so proud and arrogant and sure, admit to his defeat, his weakness.

She reached out a hand in attempt to reclaim what she had so hastily destroyed, but it burst. All that he had worked so hard to create, broke the moment it touched her hands.

A wind blew over Sarah, pulling her back, as the full force of what she had done hit her. Her eyes widened in shock as she watched the great King of the Goblins wither into a weaker form.

* * *

She reached out a hand in attempt to reclaim what she had so naïvely destroyed, but it burst. All that he had worked so hard to prefect, broke the moment it touched her hands.

A wind tugged at her, pulling her back to that damned life. He watched as the full force of what she had done hit her. Her eyes widened in shock as she watched him revert back to a weaker form. A light smile passed his lips before they transformed.

_She will never forget this mistake. She will never forget me._

* * *

_She could never forget this mistake. She could never forget him._

She suddenly found herself standing in the parlour of her dad's and stepmother's house. The clocked chimed, breaking her reverie.

She watched as the weakened king circled her before leaving, flying off into the night, abandoning her to her life. Her heart sank, and her stomach felt empty.

_How could she go on without him in her life? She needed him._

Suddenly, her life forced her to remember.

_Toby! _

She ran upstairs to check on the babe.

* * *

He watched as she found her brother, sleeping peacefully in his crib. His heart ached as she gently stroked his face. She turned and left the room. He stretched his wings and flitted to a branch outside her window. He waited for her entrance which came agonizingly slow.

She silently walked to her desk and opened the top draw. She began reaching across the desk and lying things in it: her lipstick, her music box dream, the newspaper clippings of her mother.

His heart clenched has she tenderly picked up the little, red book. She held onto the little, red book gently in her hands, and he willed her not to put in the draw.

"Sarah, are you home?" her dad's voice snuck up into the room.

Sarah looked up from the little, red book and called back, "Yeah, yes I'm home." She stuck the little, red book in the draw and closed it without a final glance. He looked away and felt his heart breaking, weakening him further.

_What had this girl done to him?_

Hesitantly, he glanced back into her room and saw her looking longingly into the mirror. He knew what was going on, and he knew his heart couldn't bear it. He turned from the window and tried to push her voice from his mind, but it snaked through: I need you...(_Jareth_) I don't know why, but every now and again in my life, for no reason at all, I _need _you.

With a sigh, he ruffled his feathers and glanced back into her room-

To see her smiling-

To see her laughing-

To see her enjoying herself-

To see her with _his _subjects-

He ruffled his feathers and opened his wings, feeling the cool night air brush against them tantalizingly and seductively. He might as well give in. He had already lost it all. His heart, his being, her.

His dear, dear Sarah.

With a quick rustle of wings, he leapt into the night air, searching for a way to banish her from his mind, his heart, his being.

* * *

But what he didn't know was that she only needed them, because they were close to him. She needed him more than the others, but he had refused to come. She had spotted him out of the corner of her eye, hoping that he would fly in, knocking the window open, standing before her in all his power and glory.

But he had stayed outside. And he had left. He had left her, alone. Left her lonely as her world came crashing down. He had promised her in that brief glimpse of a beautiful and fleeting dream that he would be there for her.

* * *

_I'll be there for you_

_As the world falls down_

_._

_._

_._

I'll be there for you

* * *

A silent echo of an owl _hoo_-ing drifting back on the wind and slipped into her room, where it reverberated throughout her.

"Jareth," she whispered into the wind.


End file.
